How Long Can an EPOCH Last?
The MIT Sloan School of Management has just thrown what could be a lifeline to folks worried about how to keep their jobs in time of encroaching artificial intelligence. The “EPOCH framework,” they say, might serve as a guide to the skills we will need if we want to complement, rather than be replaced by, AI.
I’ve written before about the kinds of job categories that seem most likely to survive as AI gains more and more capacity.
The EPOCH framework, by contrast, looks at the capabilities people will need going forward to be successful within a wide range of jobs.
Authors Isabella Loaiza and Roberto Rogobon note some of the weaknesses of AI. It has trouble in areas where there are small data sets. It doesn’t do very well at extrapolating beyond its training data. It stinks at solving moral dilemmas or wicked problems. It can’t pick up on social cues or implicit communications. It doesn’t understand value-driven decisions.
Humans, the authors argue, are better at all those things. That means we need to cultivate our capacity to offer these things in the workplace:
· Empathy and Emotional Intelligence
· Presence, Networking and Connectedness
· Opinion, Judgment and Ethics
· Creativity and Imagination
· Hope, Vision and Leadership
After an exhaustive review of 16,864 tasks required in current jobs, the authors find evidence that jobs that are high in EPOCH-intensive tasks have “experienced stronger employment growth from 2015 to 2013, higher hiring rates in 2024, and more favorable (growth) projections through 2034.”
So far so good, right? Let AI do AI, let humans do more EPOCHy things, and everything will be ok.
Well, yes. And…
AI is coming after Empathy, Ethics and Hope
Could there be anything more full of EPOCH capabilities than the ministry? Pastors/rabbis/imams need to listen with deep empathy to their flock. They need to be present. To help people connect to one another. To have a deep understanding of ethics. To inspire others with leadership and hope.
Except that… it turns out that some ministers are using AI to outsource large parts of that to AI.
Many local congregations are shrinking, leading to funding shortages that are forcing staff cuts. At the same time, a small number of megachurches and orthodox churches are growing quickly, leading to higher member-to-staff ratios and more difficulty providing personalized attention. In both cases, some religious leaders are turning to AI to address the challenge.
It makes some sense to use a chatbot to answer questions about when services are, to share event details, to analyze church attendance data or maybe even cue up daily scripture readings (all that is happening). But some religious leaders are going way beyond that. You can “Text with Jesus” (the app’s website promises a chance to “embark on a spiritual journey and engage in enlightening conversations with Jesus Christ” -- uh, that would be AI Jesus); “talk to the Bible” (well, a Bible bot); confess your sins (to an AI); or get religious advice on daily decisions (from an AI). The research director of AI and Faith, a nonprofit trying to connect AI to religion, acknowledges some of the challenge: “I think the incentives are to get it out quickly and just see what happens. The risks are very high.” But if it works? Maybe even the jobs highest in EPOCH skills are at risk.
Above an image from the “Text with Jesus” app. How arrogant do you have to be to think you can substitute for Jesus? Could this app actually replace a minister?
I downloaded the “Text With Jesus” app. Interestingly, it offered me the option of entering my Christian denomination so it could “tailor responses based on my faith.” (not quite sure why Jesus’ answer would change in those circumstances). I then had the option of texting with Jesus, Mary, Joseph, a bunch of different prophets, all of the apostles, the angel Gabriel and Cain (to talk to Abel I would have to upgrade to premium). When I clicked on “Jesus,” clouds appeared on my screen, the heavenly hosts sang and then a Scandinavian Jesus icon appeared. I was told I had “entered the conversation with Jesus.” I bailed.
AI is coming after creativity and emotional intelligence
So, preachers beware. But how about another job that would score highest on the EPOCH scale — maybe writing and performing music? Well, AI is making inroads there too.
It’s been 18 months since I wrote about the early days of AI music composition. This month we’ve hit a new milestone, as country artist “Breaking Rust” made it to number one on Billboard’s Digital Song Sales charts, a list of the most-downloaded tracks in the US, with the song “Walk My Walk.”
It's an inspiring psych-up song about a tough, independent-minded outlaw country-blues singer, depicted in the song art as a cowboy with chiseled jaw and stubble. In the song the artist doesn’t take any discernible breaths; he does take a stand for authenticity: “You can kick rocks if you don’t like how I talk/I’ma keep on talking and walk my walk.” But Breaking Rust is a “walking” and “talking” AI, as is “Cain Walker,” who holds down #3 on the charts with the song “Don’t Tread on Me.” There are four other AI-powered country artists who’ve made the charts since September's dn this week an AI creation called “Solomon Ray” (a “Mississippi-made soul singer carrying a Southern soul revival into the present”) is topping the Christian charts (leading Christianity Today to write this headline: “The Current #1 Christian Artist Has No Soul”).
If we didn’t know the “singers” were AI, would we know? A recent survey found that by Ipsos/Deezer found that 97% of us can’t distinguish between an AI-generated song and one made by humans.
“Authenticity” is one of the key human elements we want from our artists. Breaking Rust is breaking trust.
You may remember I asked the Suno AI last year to write a song to warn about the dangers of AI’s writing songs. I think the resulting song still holds up as a cautionary tale.
AI is coming after Connectedness and Imagination
At least we have that uniquely human invention, comedy, to fall back on, right? The empathy, perspective and creativity of standups could never be matched by a soulless AI model, right? Well a recent study gave humans a chance to do a blind comparison of Chat GPT jokes vs. human-generated jokes. Some 70% of the participants rated the AI-generated jokes funnier than the human jokes.
“Any Claude’s in the audience?”
I just asked ChatGPT5 what its funniest joke was. The answer: “Why don’t scientists trust atoms? Because they make up everything.” You make the call on the hilarity level.
There are more examples of AI encroaching on EPOCH-related fields. “AI-da,” described as the “first humanoid robot artist,” who is able to create original art using cameras in her eyes to capture images, then drawing abstract or realistic paintings with a robotic arm. “She” has had exhibitions; other AI’s have created sculptures that sell for thousands of dollars. Three Oscar-oriented films this year used AI in their creation. And the technology is going to end up replacing some creative jobs: “AI is coming, and nobody knows how,” said Charlie Fink, a long-time Hollywood producer told Axios. “It makes you anxious if you’re looking at something AI made and thinking, ‘Well that’s a movie.’”
AI-da’s “eyes” submit images to an AI, which tells her arms how to draw “art” from what she “sees,” using a variety of styles.
There are efforts to slow down all these AI incursions into EPOCH-related fields. To date, God and Jesus have taken no visible action, but artists and comedians are suing over using their songs and routines as training data; the state of Tennessee has passed the “ELVIS” (Ensuring Likeness, Voice and Image Security) Act to protect artists’ voices from unauthorized use; at least one club in California has banned artists from using AI-generated material to promote their shows; and creator Vince Gilligan has started including a credit with his work that notes it is “made by humans.” Who wants to live in a world,” he asked Variety recently, “Where creativity is given over to machines?”
But that world is easier and easier to glimpse — a world of EPOCHal change.
Notes:
MIT’s paper on EPOCH and AI: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5028371
Axios article on religion using AI: https://www.axios.com/2025/11/12/christian-ai-chatbot-jesus-god-satan-churches
The Tennessean article on Breaking Rust: https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2025/11/12/who-breaking-rust-ai-country-song-billboard-country-chart-topper-walk-my-walk/87216375007/
Breaking Rust’s “Walk My Walk” official video: https://youtu.be/tx3OirkhX0g?si=aDe3ufdUKQ-Vew05
The song I had Suno, an AI, write on the dangers of AI’s writing songs. It is called “The Soulful Lament”: https://suno.com/song/20374029-738f-487d-9a9f-8884c8709ee8
Ipsos survey – can you distinguish AI music from human-generated?: https://newsroom-deezer.com/2025/11/deezer-ipsos-survey-ai-music/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top
Christianity Today article on Solomon Ray: https://www.christianitytoday.com/2025/11/solomon-ray-ai-christian-music-soul-singer/
Axios article on AI-generated humor: https://www.axios.com/2025/11/12/ai-humor-chatgpt-claude
USC study finding participants though AI jokes were funnier than human-generated jokes: https://today.usc.edu/ai-jokes-chatgpt-humor-study/
Story on “Ai-da” the AI visual artist: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20241018-ai-art-the-end-of-creativity-or-a-new-movement?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top
Tennessee’s ELVIS Act: https://www.lw.com/admin/upload/SiteAttachments/The-ELVIS-Act-Tennessee-Shakes-Up-Its-Right-of-Publicity-Law-and-Takes-On-Generative-AI.pdf
Vince Gilligan in Variety on AI: https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/vince-gilligan-new-show-details-rhea-seehorn-ai-breaking-bad-1235745560/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top